Monday, February 17, 2014
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Russia’s Games 34 years later By Adelina Yankova THE DAILY CARDINAL
The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia have provided excellent entertainment and watercooler conversation for spectators during the past week, and they have certainly not escaped the attention of student journalists on University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus, inspiring coverage and commentary of the event. The last time the Olympics were held in Russia, this was not the case. In fact, The Daily Cardinal’s 1980 summer issues make no
mention of that year’s Summer Games in Moscow. “If you were in North America, you didn’t even pay attention,” UW-Madison Russian history professor David McDonald said of the 1980 Olympics, which the United States and 64 other countries boycotted in objection to the Soviet Union’s military intervention in Afghanistan. Largely a political move, refusing to participate in the Games was perhaps the most conve-
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UW alumnus promotes forgiveness through film By Adelina Yankova THE DAILY CARDINAL
For University of WisconsinMadison alumnus and documentary filmmaker Jason Cohen, the power of his work lies in “real people, telling real stories in an impactful, meaningful way.” Earlier this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized the compelling nature of Cohen’s work, nominating his film “Facing Fear” for an Oscar in the Best Documentary–Short Subject category. The 1994 UW-Madison graduate’s 23 minute documentary tells the story of a violent encounter between a homeless gay teenager and his neo-Nazi aggressor, their chance meeting 25 years later and their mutual journey toward toler-
ance and compassion, according to the director. “It’s a documentary about forgiveness,” Cohen said. “Facing Fear”, which took approximately a year and a half to complete, carried a set of challenges characteristic of its sensitive topic, though the director said the subjects were fairly receptive. “It was just sort of building up a bit of a trust with them to really open up and share all their true, innermost emotions and thoughts on camera,” he said. Cohen added that the message of “Facing Fear” is transferable, although most people have not faced the sort of horrific attack portrayed in the film.
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Skis on the Square
Madison community members skied around the Capitol Square as part of the 2014 Madison Winter Festival over the weekend. Skiing was complemented by other events such as ice sculpting, snowshoeing and several fun runs and walks. + Photo by Nick Monfeli
State Senators announce attempt to repeal same-sex marriage ban By Dana Kampa and Jane Roberts THE DAILY CARDINAL
A constitutional amendment repealing Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriage will come before the Wisconsin state Legislature later this year, state Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, and state Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa, D-Milwaukee, announced in a press conference Thursday. The announcement comes months after the Marquette University Law School released a poll in October 2013 that found 53 percent of Wisconsin residents support marriage equality for samesex couples. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said in an email he is “proud to stand in solidarity” with his colleagues as they work to “protect the rights of
all of Wisconsin’s families.” “The gay and lesbian citizens of Wisconsin deserve the rights and freedoms that come from true marriage equality,” Pocan said. “I look forward to the day—in the near future—when Wisconsin joins its neighbors in ensuring true equality for all residents of our state.”
“This is the U.S., not Putin’s Russia. This is the U.S., where we protect everybody.” Tim Carpenter senator D-Milwaukee
Carpenter and Zamarripa are the only openly gay legislators in the Wisconsin state
Legislature. Carpenter compared the opposition to gay marriage to the opposition of interracial marriage. “Just in my lifetime, we had state laws that prohibited [interracial] marriages,” Sen. Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, said. “We look back at that and see how foolish people were.” Zamarripa also reflected on the day same-sex marriage was banned in Wisconsin in 2006. “I still remember crying myself to sleep that night and promising myself that I would always continue to advocate for marriage equality,” Zamarripa said. Longtime Madison residents Liz Dannenbaum and Donna Winter also spoke at the conference to represent
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Wisconsin job creation perception highest in seven years
PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON COHEN
Jason Cohen works on a movie set in India. For more information on his current film, visit www.facingfearmovie.com.
Wisconsin ranked as a top state in perceived job creation Wednesday for the first time in a national Gallup survey. Gallup’s Job Creation Index was created in 2008 and measures a business’s “net hiring” by asking full and part-time workers how their employer is changing the size of the business’s workforce. The index
WHAT, WHAT IN THE BUTT?
score is the difference between reported hiring and firing. The index places Wisconsin in the “top tier” with 23 points. Wisconsin ranks eleventh out of the top 12 states, while Minnesota ranks sixth with 28 points. Net hiring was relatively stable in most states and increased slightly nationally in 2013, rising an average of two points.
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The “good news” about the national average is the recovery from a net-negative 2009 reading, according to the report. Since then, nearly all states have shown “substantial” improvement. The report also shows the index average has remained stable in 2014, but important state-level shifts could change the average.
Despite record-breaking crowd, women’s hockey slips up on the ice +SPORTS, page 8
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”